This is the most important content tip I've ever learned

Today’s Tip: People don’t care about you…they care about them.

This is the most important content tip I’ve ever learned.

And it’s harsh, but critical to understand if you want to do well on social media. People do not care about you.

It’s not that they are mean-spirited or doing it maliciously…they’re just so busy with their own lives and projects that your opinions, perspectives, and creative ideas don’t really matter to them.

What they do care about…is how you can help them.

If you consistently show that you can add value to their life, and help make it easier for them to accomplish their goals, they will care more about what you have to say.

I’ll be honest, when I first learned this…it broke my frame and I was super bummed.

I always thought I had uniquely creative ideas and cool perspectives on the way things worked. All I wanted was for people to listen to them…

But I’d shout and I’d shout with little to no response.

Maybe you’ve felt this way before too.

Here’s the truth that no one will tell you…the reason you’re not getting traction is because you’re cloaking any objective value in your own subjective opinion. You’re hiding the “for you” inside of a big pile of “me me me.”

People don’t have time to cut through your opinion to get to the value…they just want the value.

Tactically, this means you need to set your opinions aside and prioritize giving more value.

But here’s the problem…

Most people don’t actually have specialized knowledge that is uniquely valuable…they’re all regurgitating the same high level frameworks they’ve taken from someone else.

So the real question is…how can you develop unique knowledge that is valuable so that you can give it to other people via content?

Here is the path:

1. Learn a skill people need help with (for me this was content & marketing)

2. Prove that you know what you’re talking about (for me, this was using the learnings to grow my own channels to 700K followers / $1B+ views)

3. Make content that directly communicated my knowledge

I’ve now done this about tech/AI on my short-form channels and content/marketing on my long-form channels.

Both times, when I started prioritizing pure value, people started engaging.

Leading with value is harder and takes longer because it means you actually have to develop differentiated knowledge.

Once you’ve shared value-only for a long time, then you can start infusing your opinions, because people trust what you say as fact.

Takeaway: If you’re not getting the traction you’re looking for, you’re not providing enough value. Give people something that can help them win. If you don’t have the knowledge to do that, go learn a skill and then communicate that knowledge back

Everyone is the hero in their own story…help them accomplish their goals and you’ll become the hero in yours.

PS - If you need help improving the storytelling in your content, check out my full breakdown featuring lessons from Steve Jobs, Christopher Nolan, Casey Neistat, and the creators of SouthPark